People may not have noticed, but I am not a tram person. This is especially true when I am anywhere near the utter chaos that is the result of the current tram extension work. Clifton is a nightmare no matter where you go. But it is made worse by people like this:
This is Rivergreen in Clifton, where it joins Southchurch Drive near to the swimming baths, The tram is going down Southchurch, and at the moment it is down to a single lane controlled by three-way lights. Buses turn into Rivergreen, which is a narrow road made worse by parking at the best of times. However, they have had problems with morons like this (registration number SJI 5262) parking outside the Methodist Church. Recently there have been “no parking” cones put there, but this being Clifton someone has stolen them (they might even be in the boot of this prat’s car).
I came down here this morning with a pupil. What you can’t see is that there are two more cars parked just behind us – spaced apart slightly. The sign on the left says “wait here”, and the lights have a sensor on the top to detect when traffic approaches. There was no way we could get to the stop line without blocking the road, and even where I stopped the pupil we were still actually in the way, especially if a bus had turned in. Shortly after this, several cars did turn in, and I had to edge us forward to give them space. This imbecile was about two car lengths from the stop line.
I often wonder why it is that people with private plates behave like the biggest tossers. This particular one could have parked a few metres down the road, but that would have been too simple. It was probably some old fart who thought they had some sort of special rights. Anyone with any sense – and believe me, there are quite a few people who park here who obviously have no sense at all – would have deliberately kept away from the lights.
As it is, you can’t help but think that all Methodists are idiots. They certainly seem to be in Clifton.
I’m getting a lot of hits on this subject. However, I would imagine that most people have found my previous comments on road works in Ruddington from 2012 and 2013.
For a month or two now there have been the usual gleeful signs placed all around Ruddington warning of impending road closures “during March and April”. I’m sure you all know that it is standard practice to stretch out a few days of work into months nowadays. This particular case is no exception.
Be warned that during the work, the A60 and A52 southbound (not to mention West Bridgford and smaller side roads) will be much busier than usual as people are redirected away from Ruddington, and which for large periods will be completely blocked from what I can gather.
Nottinghamshire County Council is involved and they have clearly liaised closely with the City Council in order that whatever it is they’re doing will have the maximum negative impact on the motorist, dovetailing neatly with the tram works in Clifton and Wilford, the gas main work in Clifton, the replacement of lighting in Clifton, and the widening of the A453 past Clifton.
The County Council’s website lists all the road closures. Naturally, this is no “at-a-glance” list, since to properly understand what is closed and when you have to open up one of 18 – count ‘em: eighteen – PDF files. Even then, instead of just saying that the road will be closed from x until y, they insist on using stupid language which confuses the issue.
As far as I can tell, this is what we will have to put up with:
29-31 March – High Street closed between the Bricklayer’s Arms and the pedestrian crossing near to Clifton Road. Church lane from the chip shop up to the Co-op closed. Easthorpe Street closed up to Peartree Orchard. You may be able to park, but you won’t be able to get through*
1 April – same as above, but High Street closure extends right up to the pedestrian crossing near Clifton Road. Some restrictions eased, but with High Street still being blocked, no through route to Clifton*
2 April – same as above but works extending further up Easthorpe Street towards A60 junction. No through route to Clifton*
3-6 April – through route now open on High Street. Easthorpe Street closed all the way to A60
7-8 April – the whole of Church Street blocked. Charles Street blocked
9-11 April – same as above but with Parkyns Street now blocked as well
12-13 April – High Street closed again. Kirk Lane blocked. Charles Street blocked.
* There IS a rat run through the back streets, but since people will be using Ruddington Lane to get to Clifton, getting out of that might be a problem.
You can have a look at the PDFs yourself if you are trying to find where you can park, and where you can’t. I’m only interested in through routes and access, and that’s what I’ve reported here. Note that for at least part of the time the car park behind the Co-op will be shut, and the Medical Centre has already sent out warnings to patients advising that there will be no vehicular access to the surgery for about a week from 29 March.
It’s going to be chaos in the way only Nottingham’s City and County Councils can organise.
I stress again that all this is taking place at the same time as the tram works, gas main work, lighting replacements, and A453 widening. And don’t forget the permanent traffic jam going north on the ring road now that they have “improved” junctions up that end. Nottingham is now the absolute pits – thanks to the City and County Councils.
I mentioned not long ago how Nottingham City Council has been sending out leaflets supposedly “canvassing” opinion on its plans to introduce blanket 20mph speed limits on all but the largest of roads. When challenged, their only defence is to say that other councils are doing it, and to glibly – but very selectively – quote the RoSPA “guidelines” for 20mph limits.
As I said before, what the bloody hell it has to do with RoSPA is anyone’s guess. The local neighbourhood watch chapter has as much control over police staff recruitment as RoSPA has over speed limits. All either of them can do is go to great lengths to publicise themselves by making regular media statements about things that they feel strongly about. Beyond that they have no power whatsoever.
Except over the minds of the sorts of people who work for Nottingham City Council.
You see, the Council has already decided that it WILL introduce blanket 20mph limits. It was taken aback by the public opposition to this, which prompted it to do what it should have done BEFORE it made the decision – which was put in monitoring devices to assess traffic flow in the various locations it is going to drop the limit to 20mph in. Except that it deliberately placed the monitors in places where the RoSPA recommendation that the average speed should already be below 24mph would probably hold true, even though it would not be a true representation of speeds along the entire stretch.
It placed the monitors just after traffic lights and in bottlenecks created by tram works and the resulting gridlock we’ve had to endure over the last two years.
So I noticed this week that they’re up to the same tricks again. They’ve put a monitor on North Gate right outside the shops where traffic slows to pass parked vehicles and to allow opposing traffic through. North Gate is basically an extension of Haydn Road, which has already had a 20mph limit imposed at one end – in spite of being wide enough to land a passenger jet (and that goes totally against the RoSPA advice that the road must look like it should be 20mph). The Council is intending to impose 20mph along the entire stretch between Mansfield Road and Hyson Green.
They’ve done something similar with the monitor they’ve put on Gordon Road in West Bridgford. It is right in amongst the two rows of parked cars that cause people to slow down or stop for buses and other traffic.
It’s really hard to fathom the thought processes used by councils at the best of times. But Nottingham City Council has to take the all-time top award for sneaky behaviour.
They now reckon the Beeston work will finish at the end of May 2014. It should have been done by last October! In the meantime, traders are complaining that “compensation” is inadequate (I put that in inverted commas, because for it to be true compensation it would have to make good all shortfalls in earnings caused as a result. And it hasn’t). Chilwell Road has been closed since March 2013 – so more than a year by the time it reopens.
Project director for Taylor Woodrow Alstom, Michael Anderson, said: “We understand it’s very difficult for traders but we were unable to do the work in a different time frame. It’s very regrettable that it’s taken so long.”
Isn’t it just? And the article adds a couple more months by concluding:
All roads in Beeston should be fully reopened by July, the firm said, with trams running to and from Nottingham by the end of 2014.
So they’re still clinging to the end of the year, are they? I’ll ask what I asked previously: if you can still finish by the end of 2014 as originally planned, HAVING LOST SEVEN UNFORESEEN MONTHS IN BETWEEN TIMES, why the hell did you PLAN to cause the disruption for so long in the first place?
Nottingham’s tram is a monumental waste of money. It isn’t green. It is destroying lives and businesses. It is destroying this city. And it will continue to do so.
This is an old article. The tram still causes problems, but this was related to its construction phase.
I had a lesson with a pupil in Long Eaton yesterday. Getting down there for 1pm was no problem but coming back at 2.30pm was a nightmare. Traffic was solid along Queens Road West heading through Beeston – and this was a good 2 hours before the rush hour. And the reason?
The halfwits responsible for phase II of the tram system – that total waste of money that is currently putting people out of business and ruining lives by over-running and creating constant noise and access problems – have ripped out the roundabout at the end of University Boulevard and replaced it with a traffic light-controlled junction.
I heard on the BBC local traffic news this morning the glib comment:
There is queuing traffic in Beeston because of temporary lights and a new road layout.
That doesn’t tell even half of the story. The reason there is queuing traffic is solely because the Council and NET are a bunch of Neanderthals who are too stupid to even organise a piss up in a brewery. Between them they are destroying Nottingham. The only people who are ever likely to benefit from the tram are those who are either too poor or too old to drive cars – and that’s only in theory, since the tram is too expensive for even poor people to use too often.
The vast majority of the rest of the population – motorists – can go hang, as far as the Council is concerned.
At the time of writing, Aspley Lane has been turned into a nightmare by the removal of a roundabout. All the signs are that the Crown Island is going, too. Three roundabouts have been removed in Clifton because of the tram. The Council has sanctioned traffic light replacement at several sites – most notably in Mapperley, where there are lane restrictions.Also in Mapperley are temporary lights just before the Spring Lane roundabout. Work is on-going on Middleton Boulevard (the shit hasn’t hit the fan yet, but it will). And a big, flashy sign proclaims impending work at the Forest Road roundabout at the junction with Mansfield Road.
Nottingham City Council is trying very hard – and succeeding – in destroying this place.
Oh, yes. And on my way through Beeston I noticed a billboard which carried a big photo of the tram and the banner, declaring “Thanks for bearing with us during the tram works”.
No one had any choice – including those who have gone out of business (or who will do) as a result of the tram.
I mentioned a couple of months ago that the Clifton Chinese takeaway on Varney Road had gone out of business – in large part due to the loss of business caused by the tram works. Well, it appears that Michael’s Fresh Bake – the best bakery in Nottingham as far as bread goes – at the top end of Southchurch Drive has now gone under for similar reasons.
All those responsible for the tram and the protracted (and delayed) road works are criminals. Ruining livelihoods and ruining neighbourhoods. A drug-dealing hoodie with form for burglary would get put away for less. But who will judge these prats?
I also pointed out that NCC had already decided it was going to do this, no matter what people thought about it. They said as much in the leaflets they sent out (click the image to see one for the Wilford area). So it initially came as a bit of surprise to discover motorists were being stopped along Haydn Road – where 20mph has already been imposed – and being canvassed on their opinions. This was happening about two weeks ago albeit months after the leaflet went out.
But now we have moved a little further. NCC apparently didn’t like the results it was getting from the canvassing.
As I pointed out in that last article, RoSPA recommends 20mph limits on roads where the average speed is already below 24mph, and where the road looks like it should be 20mph in the first place. Haydn Road doesn’t fit that bill in any way, shape, or form, and I suspect that NCC has now realised this and is anxious to regain lost ground.
So last week, I noticed that traffic monitoring devices have been installed on all the roads where NCC is planning on introducing 20mph limits. You will note that these devices – those double-black wires across roads, which are used primarily to monitor traffic speeds over a period of time – have gone in at least a week after the Haydn Road canvassing exercise, and therefore several months after NCC announced it was going to do this anyway by sending out its stupid leaflets.
This apparent attempt to gather the right sort of data after a decision has already been taken is bad enough, but let’s take a look at where they’ve put these monitoring devices. Firstly, on Ruddington Lane, which is now a major thoroughfare after the closure of Wilford Lane. Instead of the hundreds of cars that used to go along that road, you now have many thousands each day, and in the extended rush hour created by the tram works and other idiotic road improvements and utilities works everywhere else (it now lasts anywhere from 3.30pm until 7pm) Ruddington Lane is gridlocked by people trying to pass through Compton Acres to West Bridgford and beyond. Traffic is at a complete standstill for the busiest part of the day.
Maybe those responsible are not as dumb as you might think. I suspect that they know full well that the average speed of traffic being monitored now is going to support their moronic 20mph policy, and that’s why they’re doing it. They know that no matter what speed people drive at along Ruddington Lane when it’s quiet (or when Wilford Lane was open), the huge number who are virtually stationary now will pull the average speed right down. I’m sure this will come out in their “public consultation meetings”. Of course, if they are as dumb as you might think, then they are just producing highly inaccurate and flawed data.
If we rule out the “dumb” card, it only leaves vindictiveness towards the motorist as the motivating force.
They’ve also put a set of wires in on Gregory Boulevard through Hyson Green. This road is also busy during rush hour, but in the last week – running as it does alongside the Goose Fair, with the numerous road closure and restrictions that last for a week as a result – the road has been gridlocked for much of the day. Again, highly misleading traffic speeds will have been recorded.
In fact, the mass of road works which are causing chaos in the City at the moment have pulled the average speed down on ALL roads, and these monitoring devices are installed in multiple locations where traffic used to move freely, but doesn’t anymore. It is totally pointless trying to get a measure of normal road speeds under these artificial conditions. Pointless – unless you are deliberately trying to obtain misleading results for some purpose.
Tonight, a lesson overran by half an hour as a result of the rush hour lasting until well after 7pm on the Ring Road. London Road into the City was at a standstill for some reason (and a sign at Trent Bridge proclaimed a lane closure for still more road works). The Aspley Lane works on the Ring Road are far from complete – the official end date is December – but a sign has now gone up outside Wollaton Park (Middleton Boulevard) advising of delays there when “junction improvements” commence later in October there. So the idiots have sanctioned yet another set of major road works amidst all the other incomplete works still in progress.
And through it all, they will be monitoring average traffic speeds in order to justify their idiotic 20mph plan.
I will say again:
20mph is too slow for many roads – and add that creating purposely inaccurate data to support the plan isn’t fooling anyone
I mentioned a few weeks ago how the City Council had started work on the Ring Road while work on the tram extension was massively behind schedule. And this was alongside numerous other incompetently managed schemes involving road closures and traffic restrictions.
Only today, on a lesson with a pupil, we drove the length of the Ring Road. Apart from the road works at the Aspley Lane roundabout, there was massive congestion around the Basford junction. Traffic is being diverted for some reason, and so is being forced on to the Ring Road (I believe it is because they have shut the railway crossing at Vernon Road – which of course is a consequence of them also having closed Nottingham Station for over a month and diverting all rail traffic to the Parkway Station along the A453, which we all know is restricted due to the on-going widening works). Once we left the northern end of the Ring Road and made our way towards Mansfield, we were again stuck in traffic because road works (this time, the signs attribute this to the Bumpkins of County Hall) have commenced near to the roundabout at the junction with the A614. Temporary lights are up, and work is scheduled to last FOUR WEEKS.
That last paragraph mentions – directly or indirectly – around a dozen separate locations where the imbeciles at both Nottingham City and County Councils have instigated road works all at the same time.
And to cap it off, they just sent out another hugely expensive brochure detailing the on-going tram works. In particular, you’d better brace yourself for the worse congestion yet, because from 1 September 2013 they will be closing Wilford Lane for “approximately 4 months”.
Yes, you read that right. Apparently, the extended Christmas those living on Ruddington Lane have experienced while that road has been closed for almost a year, when it was only due to be for “approximately 3 months”, is due to end. And the problem will now be shifted to an even worse location, most probably for an even less reliably scheduled period of time.
As I’ve said many times before, they are complete and utter prats.
Picture this. After sanctioning multiple (and I mean absolutely dozens of) simultaneous work sites for National Grid Gas to dig up roads and put in traffic restrictions everywhere, the jackasses who comprise the two local Nottingham councils then allowed Morgan Sindall to do the same thing for the electricity cabling. All this started at the same time, by the way. Most of the work – particularly that being carried out by National Grid Gas – is still on-going, and it sprouts a new bud every few weeks, spawning new road closures and restrictions. This has been going on for more than a year with no end in site. National Grid in particular seems to have virtually abandoned many sites, leaving holes with coiled yellow piping sticking out and “safety” barriers around them..
At precisely the same time as all that, work on Phase II of the idiotic waste of money that is Nottingham’s tram system began. There have been multiple long-term road closures and frequent alterations to priorities (sometimes, these changes occur on a daily basis) for the last 12 months at least. Work is already behind schedule – the chaos on Abbey Bridge Road in Lenton has a sign proudly proclaiming:
Work starts here 7 July for 12 months.
That’s LAST July – July 2012! One look at the state of the work will tell you that they are MONTHS away from reopening any of those routes permanently.
The tram is another council project, remember, and traffic trying to avoid the aforementioned gas and electricity work just gets stuck at the tram works instead. These move around and get worse daily. If you look at NET’s own official timeline it clearly states that Ruddington Lane/Wilford Lane was to be closed for “approximately” three months from the end of September 2012. Again, work there is nowhere near being completed after 10 months. The project is therefore at least seven months behind schedule.
The situation is currently just as bad, if not worse, in Clifton, Beeston, and Chilwell for all the same reasons. In Clifton, the businesses around Varney Road have seen a massive drop in trade. There is no way some of them can possibly survive, and the ones that do may never recover (one of the fast food outlets has noticeably cut back on portion sizes, and that will inevitably push more customers away). It is bound to be the same for those along the Chilwell High Road – in spite of the pathetic yellow signs declaring “businesses open as usual”. All of this is entirely the fault of the Council for the incompetent management of an ill-conceived idea, and the shopkeepers in Chilwell who held a “staying open” street party might well be laughing on the other sides of their faces in 12 months’ time.
I have never used the tram, and I cannot see that I ever will, so until a few days ago I had no idea how much it cost to travel on it until a pupil told me. She said that they’d put the prices up so that it was no longer cheaper than using the bus (and in any case, since trams run on rails – like trains do – unless you want to be somewhere near a stop you’re still going to have the inconvenience of a walk or a separate bus journey). For most people it would now be cheaper to drive, and certainly a lot more convenient. In spite of all the gushing claims, far fewer people use the tram than the Council would have you believe. I rarely see it anywhere near full – you get train after train of empty seats every ten minutes for most of the day. There is no way that even the original tram can remain financially viable under these circumstances, let alone with the additional cost of Phase II on top. And add to that overhead the un-budgeted cost of the compensation the Council is apparently having to pay to businesses it has ruined, the picture of the future looks even worse.
Anyway, bearing in mind that every single on-going project I’ve already mentioned is massively behind schedule, and major routes are therefore still closed, traffic is being forced to use the Ring Road. So it beggars belief that the City Council has now begun work on “improving” the Aspley Lane junction along that road. The mind boggles over precisely how the Council thinks it can “improve” this junction – so much so, that you start to wonder who they’re actually “improving” it for. You see, the rest of the Ring Road is only two lanes wide, and Aspley Lane itself is only one lane wide. Council brains being what they are, it is possible that the concept of fitting a square peg into a round hole is one they are able to grasp (but I wouldn’t put money on it), but they have clearly overlooked the fact that they could make the Aspley Lane junction ten lanes wide if they wanted, but it wouldn’t make the overall flow along the Ring Road any better. Deceit is something councils are pretty good at, and the fact that Aspley Lane runs into Strelley and Broxtowe, combined with the fact that there is a school about 100 metres along from the junction, would make me strongly suspect that the “improvements” are not aimed at motorists, but at a species which occupies a far lower rung on the evolutionary ladder. The Nottingham authorities have a penchant for spending lots of money on areas which couldn’t possibly appreciate it.
No doubt the original “plan” was to start this work after some of the other jobs had been finished. However, as I have already pointed out those jobs are all massively overdue, and this latest debacle is now running concurrently with them all. Even though they have only properly restricted traffic on weekends so far (with flow down to a single lane), the actual effect on queues along the Ring Road is already quite dramatic. Pallets of barriers have been delivered and stacked two high right up to the roundabout on both sides. This means that traffic approaching the island now has to slow down much more than it had to previously because it can’t see properly. Slowing down more means having to stop more often, so the tailbacks are horrendous even when traffic is lighter during the day. It is a Health & Safety nightmare, but since it is only the motorists’ health & safety at stake, no one seems to give a flying fart about that. I imagine it would be a lot different if any of the Council’s own muppets was put at risk, though.
But it gets even worse. The idiots have also sanctioned further road closures all over the city, mostly due to road resurfacing from what I can gather (though Severn Trent is now eager to get in on the act). Yellow signs are already up gleefully announcing week long closures, where once upon a time the work would have been completed over a couple of nights (and still could be if anyone with any sense was involved). I have seen them warning that Station Road in Plumtree is shutting for a week, as is Somersby Road in Mapperley (and there are several more). They’re not primary routes in the normal sense of the word – but they are when you’re trying to avoid the chaos caused by all the other crap the council has instigated.
And we’re still not done!. The County bumpkins have got the road up yet again in Ruddington on the A60 at the junction with Kirk Lane and Flawforth Lane. Over the last couple of years that junction has been dug up more times than a dog’s bone. This time, it’s the County Council’s favourite job of replacing traffic lights which are perfectly functional, and taking a week or more to do it. Naturally, it is essential that 4-way temporary lights be set up while this needlessly long work takes place.
Then there is the current vogue for changing speed limits without any obvious advanced warning. The 30/40 change on Lougborough Road in West Bridgford has now moved about 300 metres up the road – meaning that every car travelling away from the city will have to use more fuel as it reaches Wilford Hill and has to use a lower gear in order to accelerate harder in order to be able to change up on the hill itself when the 40mph limit kicks in. This goes hand-in-hand with the 20mph limits which have appeared all over (my favourites have to be the ones they’ve put up in Sherwood on narrow side roads which have speed bumps and lots of parked cars on them already – anyone who did more than 20 on those will still do it, signs or not. It’s a total waste of money.
But it’s still not finished. Nottingham Train Station is now closed for a month while they carry out signal work. All passengers are being ferried out to the Parkway – some 10 miles away. Of course, on paper that would only be a 20 minute ride by bus – unless you factor in road works. According to the local BBC news it is taking more than an hour and people are missing their trains, but even more significant is the fact that they are using 750 extra buses to move people to and from the Parkway. That’s 750 extra vehicles on the A453, a road which has just had a 40mph limit imposed on it as – yes, you guessed it – road works begin on widening one of the busiest and most congested routes in the country.
The examples above are still only a sample of all of what is going on. When you add the numerous restrictions resulting from house building, tree-felling, verge maintenance… it is beyond a joke.
Nottingham is currently the absolute pits. The council – that is, both City and County – are intent on ruining it completely. They just don’t have a clue.
This story from the BBC confirms the disruption that the Ring Road “improvement” will bring. It is due to be completed in Summer 2015 – the same time the A453 widening work is due to finish. Aspley Lane will be closed to normal traffic from August. The story doesn’t say how long for.
If everything I wrote above wasn’t enough to convince you about the incompetence of the City and County Councils, surely this will.
It means that every possible route both into and out of Nottingham will be blocked or impeded – deliberately – for normal traffic for a period of two years from now (assuming they don’t overrun, of course).
And anyone using the Ring Road also needs to be aware that “Bridge Repairs” are scheduled for Clifton Bridge from the start of August (these were originally started and then discontinued a couple of months ago). You couldn’t make this level of sheer incompetence up if you tried. It just has to be deliberate.
Oh, and I neglected to mention an unreported side-effect of the month-long closure of Nottingham Station. It is being used as an opportunity to do work at the various level crossings and at the time of writing (24 July) the road through Sneinton is closed, and the one in Netherfield has temporary lights installed.
Most people who live in Nottinghamshire know that the Nottingham City and County Councils currently hold the top two positions in the League Of Biggest ******** (fill in the blanks, and feel free to add or remove a couple to make your favoured word fit) On The Entire Planet.
Two years ago, one (or possibly both) of them decided to allow National Grid to commence gas main replacement at multiple sites simultaneously. By “multiple”, I mean dozens of them. They also allowed Morgan Siddall to start doing something with the electrical cables – also at multiple (but different) sites – at the same time. They sanctioned this just as work started on Phase II of Nottingham’s world-ranked national joke known as “The Tram”. It has been complete chaos ever since, with occasional peaks of traffic gridlock that you couldn’t imagine in your wildest dreams.
All of the mentioned work is currently still in progress – almost two years after it started. National Grid in particular seem to have abandoned the myriad holes with plastic barriers and coiled yellow tubing that it has dug, though it is still digging new pits, and one simply has to guess at what year they’re likely to complete the work and put the pavements back to the way they were, and pack away all their temporary traffic lights and road closure signs.
As if all of that wasn’t enough, the Highways Agency has begun its massively overdue widening work on the A453.
But that’s not all. Latest problems motorists have to deal with in an around Nottingham – above and beyond everything I’ve listed above – include: unpredictable road closures for “emergency bridge repairs” on Clifton Bridge; unpredictable road closures for resurfacing work near the Nottingham Knight roundabout; random weekend road closures as the County Council in particular continues its Jihad against any tree older than about 5-6 years, lest a twig should fall on a child; huge holes with steel-reinforced sides which last for months at a time and which appear in unpredictable locations; totally unnecessary “upgrading” of traffic lights at numerous junctions; building companies engaged in construction of those ugly, modern housing developments putting up completely over-the-top temporary lights for weeks or months at a time; any two-bit labouring firm putting up temporary 3- or 4-way lights for any reason they feel like just to massage inferior egos; etc. Most people who live around here would agree that the City and the County is in a complete, incompetently managed mess.
So it should come as little surprise to hear that Zouch, – pronounced “zoosh”, a village in Nottinghamshire with a population 53, and which is less than about three quarters of a mile long – has 8 speed limit changes to contend with. It didn’t used to have. There used to be just three: 60mph leading into it, 40mph while you were there, and 60mph out of it again.
The BBC report quotes some five-year old as saying:
Originally the majority of the main road – the A6006 – was 60mph. In 2005, a 50mph limit was imposed to the east of Zouch as part of an accident remedial scheme.
At the same time a 40mph limit was imposed through the village. The aim of the scheme was to manage speed which had been identified as a contributory factor in incidents.
Last year, a 30mph speed limit was introduced to cover the built area. This is similar to the situation in Hathern where a 30mph speed limit exists with a 40mph buffer.
This nonsense implies that the route in question was an accident black spot, when it definitely wasn’t. Sure, it’s was danger route for motorcycles, but it still is because they don’t obey speed limits in the first place and it is a favoured drag strip of theirs.It wasn’t known for a significant number of accidents involving cars or pedestrians, and Zouch’s small population of “53” (i.e. less than a bus full) isn’t the result of any previous vehicular carnage.
The simple fact is that Nottingham’s incompetent councils have cut speed limits on dozens of roads. Some councils in the UK spend their time on other pointless issues. Nottingham’s councils’ specialist subject is “cutting and changing speed limits”. The ridiculous situation in Zouch – which is a hindrance and a danger to 99% of those who encounter it – is merely a part of that, and not some urgently needed action. It’s just a case of spotty-faced kids in new jobs sitting round flipcharts in team meetings for too long coming up with pointless changes.
Nottingham’s councils appear to have a major issue with traffic inasmuch as everything they do is clearly designed either to have a negative impact on the motorist, or to create more traffic hold-ups per se. Nothing they sanction has any urgency about it, and quite frankly, if ever they do suddenly expedite something it is only after a noticeable period of almost deliberate inconvenience to the motorist. I’m fairly certain that the Police have had to get involved in order to get things resolved more quickly on more than one occasion, and yet the morons at the two councils still don’t seem to have got the message. Any changes to speed limits or new road works is obviously geared to cause as much inconvenience to the motorist as possible.
numerous other incompetently managed schemes involving road closures and traffic restrictions.
Picture this. After sanctioning multiple (and I mean absolutely dozens of) simultaneous work sites for National Grid Gas to dig up roads and put in traffic restrictions everywhere, the jackasses who comprise the two local Nottingham councils then allowed Morgan Sindall to do the same thing for the electricity cabling. All this started at the same time, by the way. Most of the work – particularly that being carried out by National Grid Gas – is still on-going, and it sprouts a new bud every few weeks, spawning new road closures and restrictions. This has been going on for more than a year with no end in site. National Grid in particular seems to have virtually abandoned many sites, leaving holes with coiled yellow piping sticking out and “safety” barriers around them..